Linacre - 30th October 2022

 Jayne and I had a couple of hours round Linacre this morning in grey, overcast, but very mild (15 degrees) conditions.

Birds recorded were:  36 Black-headed Gull, 65 Tufted Duck (the highest count since 56 in April), 83 Mallards, 12 Moorhens (9 adults and 3 juveniles), 4 Coots, 1 Kingfisher, 4 Cormorants, c52 Mandarin Ducks,( a low count for this time of the year, and many more were heard in the trees and overhanging vegetation), 1 Little Grebe, 2 Great-crested Grebes (both juveniles), 1 female Goosander (the second winter record after 2 females on 12th October and 1 Pied Wagtail.

Pied Wagtail

In addition, 3 Common Buzzards were together over the middle reservoir, a few Redwings were heard, and singles of Song Thrush and Jay were seen.

Welcome back EUM3 and P519

I had a couple of hours at Rufford yesterday (11.30 - 13.30) and was very pleased to welcome back two well-known Black-headed Gulls, EUM3 (Dutch bird) and P519 (Lithuanian bird). I was particularly pleased to see EUM3, as this bird is normally seen from August onwards, and I was beginning to worry that it had become a victim of this summer's avian flu epidemic. Thankfully, I was wrong!

EUM3

P519

In addition to these birds, I also spotted 273A (3rd sighting), 284A (4th sighting), 296A (my first sighting at Rufford, since ringing last winter at Center Parcs), 249B (the first sighting since being ringed at Center Parcs on 10th October 2022), S20B (a Croatian bird, first seen in December 2021) and ST301.091 (a Finnish bird - my first record at Rufford).

249B

S20B

ST301.091

UPDATE: The Finnish gull, ST301.091, was ringed, as a chick, on 16th June 2016, 1590km away!

Greylag Goose 4UT

 Jayne and I were in York yesterday. Whilst sat by the river I noticed a Greylag Goose with a darvic ring, 4UT. A quick search revealed that the bird in question had been ringed on 19th June 2017 at Wheldrake Ings Nature Reserve, by Waterbird Colour Marking Group.

4UT

Our sighting was the ninth since ringing, and it had spent time at Wheldrake, Rodley Nature Reserve in Leeds before setting in York city centre from July 2021.

Gull Ringing 22nd October 2022

Yesterday, I managed to get out gull ringing with Sorby Breck Ringing Group for the first time since late 2020. We spent the day at Center Parcs, just 2km away from Rufford CP, and ringed 7 new Black-headed Gulls, a mixture of 1st year and adult birds. We also added green darvic rings (251B - 257B).

251B (1st winter bird)

Fingers crossed now to get some re-sightings over the winter.

Clumber Mute Swans - 16th October 2022

Jayne and I had a lovely walk around the main lake at Clumber Park this afternoon. Gull numbers were beginning to build up (200+ Black-headed Gulls were seen, but, unfortunately, no rings as the gulls stayed in the water) and we also saw 100+ Mute Swans, including 9 cygnets.

The majority of the swans also stayed in the water, but we did spot two darvic-ringed birds, Y204 (a 3-year-old bird with metal ring W48404) and Y677 (a 2-year-old bird with metal ring W51077). Both birds had been seen by us there before (click on the labels to see their life histories). The best sighting of the day (or rather hearing??) was two Cetti's Warblers that we had, our first record for this site. Two Little Egrets were also seen.

Y204

Y677

It was sunny and quite warm today, around 13 degrees, so there were plenty of Common Darters flying about (10+), including several pairs egg-laying. a couple of Migrant Hawkers were also seen, as were three Hornets.

Mariposa Grove, Yosemite - August 2022

On our second day in Yosemite, we travelled a little bit further south to visit Mariposa Grove and the Giant Sequoias. To say the trees were unbelievable is an understatement! Their size and volume is indescribable and truly mind-blowing. The tree pictured below is called Grizzly Giant and stands at 63.7m (209ft) with a circumference of 29m (96 ft) at the base. A recent investigation estimated its age to be around 2900 years old!!!

Grizzly Giant (and me!)

Whilst there, we walked around a small area of the forest, seeing a single White-headed Woodpecker, Mountain Chickadee, a warbler sp that was most likely Yellow-rumped (Myrtle), Western Wood Pewee, Steller’s Jay and Northern Goshawk. Mammal species seen were: Mule (Black-tailed) Deer, Chickaree (Douglas Squirrel) and Lodgepole Chipmunk. 

Chickaree

A single Acmon Blue butterfly was also seen.

Acmon Blue

Yosemite Valley - August 2022

Whilst staying in California, Jayne and I got a 3-day pass to visit Yosemite National Park. 

The first day was spent in and around the Yosemite Valley area. Whilst there, we took a 2-hour guided tour, to take in the main sites, including El Capitan, Half Done, Yosemite Falls and Tunnel View.

Half Dome and Cook Meadow

Bird species seen included: Raven, American Robin, Red-winged Blackbird, Brewer’s Blackbird, Steller’s Jay, Acorn Woodpecker, Turkey Vulture, Black Phoebe, Common Merganser (adult and juveniles), and my best ever views of Hairy Woodpecker. In addition, we had very brief views of a Swift sp, flying around Yosemite Falls, that was most likely Black Swift.

Hairy Woodpecker

One evening, at around 7pm, we saw an American Black Bear feeding in Cook Meadow.

American Black Bear

Rufford CP - 9th October 2022

Gull numbers had increased since my last to Rufford a couple of weeks ago, and there were approximately 100 Black-headed Gulls and 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull present.

4 ringed birds were seen: 246A, 258A, 281A and 293A. All birds had been seen at Rufford in previous winters (click on the labels for details). 

246A

258A

293A

281A, however, was a particularly good record, as it the first record from this winter, and had last been in Oslo, Norway, on 22nd April 2022.

281A

Linacre Ringing - 2nd October 2022

 Last Saturday I was down at Linacre with two other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group for our first ringing session there, since March!!!

The day started well, with a Goldcrest the first bird out of the nets. It continued right up to the end of the session, nearly 5 hours later, by which time we'd ringed 61 birds of 12 species!

Totals were (new/re trap): Goldcrest 4/0, Great Tit 10/0, Blue Tit 24/0, Long-tailed Tit 9/2, Coal Tit 1/0, Robin 2/0, Dunnock 2/0, Treecreeper 1/0, Song Thrush 1/0, Blackbird 1/0, Chiffchaff 3/0 and Bullfinch 1/0.

The two re trap Long-tailed Tits had been ringed together, at Linacre, on 14th November 2021.

Linacre WeBS Count - 8th October 2022

 This morning I carried out October's WeBS count at Linacre. It was a perfect autumnal morning, with dry, bright, still conditions and just 7 degrees - lovely!!

Waterfowl numbers have started to increase again, along with the first returning Black-headed Gulls (5). The highlight, however, was the sight of 7 Cormorants, all feeding together on the top reservoir! This was my third highest ever count, beaten only by 8 birds in September 2014 and January 2016.

Other records from today were: 93 Mallard, 14 Moorhens (8 adults and 6 juveniles), 35 Tufted Ducks, 63 Mandarin Ducks, 9 Coots (8 adults and 1 juvenile), 4 Grey Wagtails, 1 Kingfisher, 1 Little Grebe, 3 Great-crested Grebes (2 adults and 1 juvenile) and 1 Canada Goose.